Measuring the Impact of Volunteering

Abstract

The language of regulation, accountability and performance measurement has become as familiar across the third sector as it is in the public and private sectors (see, for example, Billis and Harris, 1996; Ellis, 2008; Kendall and Knapp, 1996). Monitoring, evaluation and impact measurement have become part of everyday organisational life (Ellis, 2008; Wainwright, undated). Organisations have to prove their worth and provide evidence to back up claims of their effectiveness. As Saxton and Greenwood (2006: p. 2) put it, ‘We must replace trust with evidence’.